1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of data processing. More specifically, embodiments of the present invention relate to a computer implemented method and system for managing electronic messages.
2. Related Art
Electronic systems and circuits have made a significant contribution towards the advancement of modem society and are utilized in a number of applications to achieve advantageous results. Numerous electronic technologies such as digital computers, calculators, audio devices, video equipment, and telephone systems have facilitated increased productivity and reduced costs in analyzing and communicating data in most areas of business, science, education and entertainment. These advantageous results are often realized through networked devices that enable information to be communicated between the devices. As organizations and individuals utilize increasingly distributed and open communication environments, the use of electronic messaging has increased substantially and become an important method of communication for many individuals and organizations. However, users often do not want to read many of the messages and while e-mail has provided the average user with a convenient and rapid communication method, it has also often burdened users with arduous and frustrating message management problems such as handling unwanted e-mail.
Electronic mail (E-mail) provides a convenient and easy means for two or more individuals to communicate information in text messages, pictures, or almost any electronic file. The information is often communicated via e-mail mailing list mechanisms utilized to facilitate participation by large groups of users having something in common such as interest in a general subject. Mailing list activity can be extremely high, often depending on the number of users on the list and the nature of the e-mail discussion. Mailing list communications are usually organized in “conversation” threads. A conversation thread is typically a sequence of messages, usually involving responses to an initial message posting. Organizing related e-mails in a thread typically helps a user to follow or join an individual discussion in a newsgroup or mailing list from among many different discussions that may exist.
The typical high volume of e-mail messages usually requires a significant expenditure of resources managing the e-mails. Most e-mail messages are stored by default in a single electronic mailbox or folder until the recipient of the e-mail processes them individually. When the number of incoming messages is very large, the process of manually determining an appropriate e-mail management action (e.g., opening or deleting an e-mail) consumes significant time and resources. Some traditional e-mail applications may attempt to allow a user to direct the software to perform actions on particular types of e-mail by defining rules that filter messages. However, developing these rules and associated sequence of computer instructions or code typically consumes a lot of time and resources as users engage in several iterative rule definition and test cycles involving Boolean logic. These coding and testing steps often take significant time to make sure that the code (rules) is (are) behaving correctly and is not inadvertently producing detrimental results such as inappropriately deleting messages.
Traditional attempts at simplifying e-mail management are usually very limited in scope and user objectives are often not satisfied. For example, users often desire to “filter” out undesirable e-mail messages. Some prior attempts at filtering messages are directed to removing “junk mail” by deleting the mail before it goes into the user's in-box. These attempts often are limited in their granularity (e.g., not well adjusted to addressing individual conversations, etc.) when attempting to determine if mail is junk and their scope is also typically limited in regards to dealing with long term filtering of messages. While these traditional message filtering approaches may attempt to prevent a user from receiving e-mails the user did not wish to receive (e.g., unsolicited bulk e-mail or UBE), they do not typically provide a user with the advantageous flexibility of receiving e-mail messages and managing them appropriately (e.g., messages related to an e-mail message conversation or thread).